The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent a monkey into space aboard an indigenous bio-capsule as a prelude to sending humans into space. The space capsule, code-named Pishgam (Pioneer), was launched on Monday on the auspicious birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). On January 15, the director of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli said because of biological similarities between humans and monkeys, the latter were selected for the space mission.

Fazeli further highlighted that the plan to send animals into the space is part of a broader project to send human beings on space missions. The ISA director stated that Iran's first manned mission to space would be launched within the next five to eight years. Elsewhere in his remarks, Fazeli said the indigenous Sharifsat satellite will be put into the orbit by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2013).

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

Bannedman

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

Kaso_Da_Zmok

@BazUK Iran has more than 70 millions population (most of them Muslims)... to be fair, UK has more than 60 millions population (many of them Muslims!) but did not even find a fucking monkey yet to send to space...

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

paulgoss

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

The_Jason

Contrary to all the racist bs in the comments, Persian mathematicians/ scientists are very intelligent people and are educated in some of the finest institutions around the world. They return with doctorals to teach in Iran. It's not fair to blame working people for the western world's perception of the governments agenda. Because of internal politics punishable by death, the most educated people in Persia are not allowed to leave the country nor are their monetary assets.

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

jcskywalker75

Posted Jan-28-2013 By

Nev36

Codename Pigsham? Silly muslims you're way behind the times.
What are you going to do in space anyway? It's going to be funny watching them try to pray to mecca while in non-geosynchronous orbit, are they going to use some pointless fucking tool to point them toward mecca?.